April 6th

 April 6th, 2018 I saw Rod Stewart at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

December 4th

  

 On December 4th, 1991 I saw Rod Stewart play at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton on his Vagabond Heart Tour. Great show!

Rod Stewart & Cheap Trick Live in Edmonton August 15th 2023

 

This Rod Stewart and Cheap Trick show at Rogers Place finally happened after being postponed a few times because of the pandemic. I was surprised that after a few years it was still the double bill it was. I was really looking forward to seeing Cheap Trick in concert again and of course Rod Stewart. I went to this show with Buzzard, Cuz and Janis.

This would be my second time seeing Cheap Trick in concert, the last time being in 1994. Best to catch these acts while you still can, because they sure the hell aren't getting any younger. Cheap Trick still has three of the original members in the band. Robin Zander on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Tom Petersson on bass and Rick Nielsen on lead guitar. The band was rounded out with Daxx Nielsen on drums (son of Rick Nielsen) and on guitar Robin Taylor Zander Jr. (son of Robin Zander). The original members are all in their 70's now.

There was a good majority of the crowd seated and ready to see Cheap Trick perform. I think half the audience was there as much for Cheap Trick as Rod. Cheap Trick's forty-five minute set went over pretty damn good. Though I thought they sounded kind of rough for the first half of the show. The band opened the show with two songs from their 1977 album In Color, opening with "Hello There" followed by "Big Eyes". The last half of their set was excellent with them playing their big hits like "The Flame", "I Want You To Want Me', "Dream Police", "Surrender" and closing the show with "Goodnight". A fun set and very happy I got to see the band again.

Cheap Trick.

Headlining the evening was 78 year old  Rod Stewart. This was my third time seeing Sir Rod in concert. By the time Rod hit the stage with his big ass band Rogers Place was packed. Ol' Rod can still fill a coliseum.

What surprised me was Rod Stewart opening his show with the song "Addicted To Love" a Robert Palmer song, weird! For a man at 78 years old, Rod can still put on a hell of show. Lots of energy and his voice still sounds great too. After opening with a cover song, he played one of his own "You Wear It Well" and then a song from his Faces day "Ooh La La". That was the only faces song he did unfortunately. I'd love to see him get that band back together. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by the opening song being a cover song as Rod does play a lot of other peoples song, such as CCR's "Have You Seen The Rain", Tom Waits "Downtown Train", a Cat Stevens song and Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately?". Then his back up singers did the Pointer Sisters song "I'm So Excited" while rod had a outfit change. I was very happy to hear Rod play "Maggie May" and "Young Turks" and of course he did a few corny songs like "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" and "Infatuation". 

 I loved seeing how much Rod Stewart looked to be having a good time and really enjoying himself performing. The man still has it! A fun show as always from Sir Rod. Good times!!!

Rod Stewart.

Rod Stewart Live in Edmonton April 6th 2018

On Friday night Janis and my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Rod Stewart concert at Rogers Place here in Edmonton. This was my second time seeing Rod in concert, the first time being in 1991. That first time my buddy Geddy and I spent more time running for beers through out the show whenever there was a song we didn't like being performed. Well this time was a bit different as I respect Rod Stewart that much more, but there were still plenty of times where I did go run for a way over priced beer.

I was kind of hoping this time Rod would play more of his old stuff, tunes from The Faces and from classic albums like Gasoline Alley and Every Picture Tells A Story. But sadly only one song got played from either album and that was "Maggie May" from the Picture album, the last song before the encore.

The show started with a what looked like a big old checkerboard shower curtain around the stage. The first song of the night was "Infatuation" which got the 14,000 people (my guess) up and singing and dancing. That was followed by the song "Young Turks" from his hugely popular 1981 album Tonight I'm Yours. Rod's voice sounded a little rough, not that he has always had the best voice but at least you knew it was him singing and not some piped in vocals. Rod did mention how dry it was here and it was messing with his and his female backup singers voices. Rod seemed in good spirits though saying how much he loved a Friday night show, and saying he would be playing for an hour and forty-five minutes in which he did. And with no opening act, this show was done before 9:30 which seemed pretty lame for a Friday night show, but I guess at the age of 73 and still looking good, Rod may be a little old for late nights now.

Other songs that he played were "Ooh La La" a Faces song, that was good, as well as "Tonight the Night", "Forever Young", "Downtown Train" a song that Tom Waits actually wrote. My favorite tune of the night was the Muddy Waters song he did "Rollin' And Tumblin'", he sounded great singing this gritty blues song as his voice really seems to work with this type of rock n' roll, it's more along the lines of his Gasoline Alley songs.

For the encore he played "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?", I was really hoping he wouldn't play that song, but I guess I knew it was coming with it being one of his biggest hits. What was weird though was for the last three songs the big curtain or shower curtain whatever you wanna call it would come down, then go back up and they would do another song, and then finally it never went back up, show done, over. No good night, no bow, nothing, all over, seemed like a weird way to end a concert. And especially when it's not even 9:30 on a Friday. All and all the show was a bit schmaltzy but still a fun night out. Good times!!!

Rod Stewart at Rogers Place.